• Killer Homemade Nachos

    Killer Homemade Nachos

    On Saturday morning, I woke up with a throbbing headache, totally dehydrated and desperate for coffee. That’s always the sign of a successful Friday night (ours involved seeing “Blue Jasmine” so you know it was wild). A few hours later, feeling better, I was craving some greasy food to accompany my viewing of “It’s Complicated”…

  • Adana

    Adana

    The weirdest thing: we moved to Atwater Village, right next to Glendale, only a few weeks ago. When our New York Times weekend subscription kicked in, I eagerly opened the magazine, as I always do, checking out the food column before attempting (and failing at) the puzzle. To my total amazement, Mark Bittman’s column celebrated…

  • The Ultimate Weeknight Dinner: Braised Chicken Thighs and Cauliflower with Olives and Capers

    The Ultimate Weeknight Dinner: Braised Chicken Thighs and Cauliflower with Olives and Capers

    You’re not going to believe me, but I’m telling you the truth: the dinner you see above? It’s cheap and easy. Don’t balk! I kid you not. Last Monday, I made this dinner for less than $20 and it was one of the best things that I’ve made in a long time. I didn’t even…

  • A Kitchen Table

    A Kitchen Table

    One of the things that came up, when we found our new apartment, was the fact that there was room for a kitchen table. I liked that idea, but didn’t really think that much about it. As we set things up, though, there was an obvious space in the kitchen–in front of my cookbook shelf–that…

  • My Top 10 Favorite Breakfast Recipes

    My Top 10 Favorite Breakfast Recipes

    Breakfast may be my favorite meal to cook because there’s nothing fussy or formal about it. You just wake up, roll out of bed, head to the kitchen, put the coffee on, see what you’ve got in the fridge and the pantry and get going. Most of the time, I improvise with what I have…

  • Clamming For The First Time

    Clamming For The First Time

    I don’t know if Instagram is making me seem like a good photographer or if I’m really a good photographer and I didn’t know that until I had Instagram. Either way, look at that picture I took of Craig standing on rocks the day we arrived on Eliza Island, where Craig’s parents have a cabin…

  • The Night People Paid To Eat My Food (A Charity Dinner in Bellingham)

    The Night People Paid To Eat My Food (A Charity Dinner in Bellingham)

    A few months ago–what seems like an eternity ago–Craig’s mom, Julee, asked if I’d be willing to donate a cookbook dinner for a charity auction to benefit the Whatcom Center for Early Learning in Bellingham, Washington, where she and Craig’s dad, Steve, live. I said, “Sure” and didn’t think twice about it. Of course I’d…

  • Fried Rice for Breakfast

    Fried Rice for Breakfast

    Along with my chickpea curry disaster, I’d made some white rice in my rice cooker that looked like it was going to go to waste. I could have made rice pudding but Craig hates rice pudding so I put the leftover rice in the refrigerator and forgot about it.

  • The Most Disgusting, Inedible Dinner I’ve Ever Cooked

    The Most Disgusting, Inedible Dinner I’ve Ever Cooked

    We all mistakes in the kitchen, even those of us who’ve been cooking ten years or longer. My mistakes are all documented here on the blog: The Pound Cake That Threw Up. The Fried Chicken That Wasn’t Crispy. The Blueberry Disaster. In all of these cases, the food was salvageable. The pound cake went back…

  • Something Happened At Rustic Canyon

    Something Happened At Rustic Canyon

    On Thursday night, we were supposed to go to dinner with Craig’s former boss and the boss’s wife. A work dinner, so to speak. “7:30 at Pizzeria Mozza,” said Craig, earlier in the day. Then, as 7:30 rolled around, Craig pulled me aside. “I told a white lie,” he said. “We’re not going out with…